Category: Language

Every couple of weeks, I hope to post a Back To School blog for US, THE PARENTS.
* One week, I will introduce you to amazing, relaxing products with a special interview by the products creator.
* Another week I will give you tops and quotes from parents who got off of drugs for their kids, and stay off of drugs for their kids.
* Tips on dealing with Children’s Services.
* Pets and kids.
* Making sure your kids actually do their homework
* Kids and bullies
* Anything readers suggest.
Send suggestions to: lalitadevibastet@yahoo.com

I love dictionary.com as it helps me when my son asks for the definition of a word I know the meaning of but cannot put into words. Enter this convenient app. They’ve also got some interesting blog posts and slideshows. Here are some recent ones I enjoyed :Continue reading “Some Interesting Posts by Dictionary.com”→

If, like me, you enjoy British writers, tv shows, movies, etc, you’ll eventually come across monetary terms. We’ve all heard of Pounds, Shillings, and other terms like, “ha’ penny”, but what do they mean?
This isn’t a modern day guide to how many dollars to the pound, or vice-versa, but it should clear up some confusion.
I hope.

[Google Play Store is where people with Android phones can download apps, books, music, and videos. I’m not sure what the iPhone equivalent is because I don’t care to spend one month’s rent for a phone that will be obsolete and not working in a year.]

My son and I “test” a lot of games, and I “test” various other apps and reading material. I use the word, “test”, because we usually go thru the tutorial and then delete it. With all of the thousands (millions?) of games available, you would think we’d never come across a game we’d played before — but it does happen. Quite often, actually.
Once you’ve begun to download an app, even before it is installed on your phone (tablet or otherwise), you can leave a comment. This is why there are comments saying an app won’t open and could the developers please let the individual know when it is fixed?

The star rating goes from one star to five stars. There is space for a comment, with a bold header.
Maybe it’s because I write (and have an Editor- in- residence in my head), but I appreciate it when people leave a rating, along with an explanation of why s/he gave that rating. When I fill it out, it helps me remember why I uninstalled in the first place.
It is helpful if a review matches the number of stars given. Reading the comments from other people makes my undiagnosed OCD go nutty. How can a four star rating be matched with a diatribe against the app, the developers, and their firstborn child? Or a one star rating followed by, “Dis is da bezzzt app EVA!”? Things like a one star review that reads, “Osum” (I’m assuming that writer meant “awesome”), or a four star rating filled with complaints makes people (read: snobs like me) think you’re not very bright or not very sane. Then again, I have left reviews that said, simply, “Boring”, or, worse, “Meh”.

One thing I’ve always found frustrating about humans is… Well, there are many things. For example, humans seem to forget that we are — gasp — animals who lucked out with the thumbs.
Another annoyance is that, when studying different species of animals, we base it on the accepted standard of human intelligence. I’m not an environmentalist by any means, but how can we claim to be so very smart if this plant has been here, what, millions of years? Humans a few thousand years, yet we’ve almost completely destroyed this planet! (Most of the damage having been done over the past two hundred years.)
That said (grumbled, complained, etc), the above link leads to some interesting articles on nonhuman animals and their speech.
Enjoy.

If you only read only book this year… Well, you need to rethink your priorities if you only read one book a year.

Okay.
Let me start over.

If you’re wondering what book you should read next, and you’ve got a few hours of uninterrupted reading time (since you won’t be able to put this book down until you’ve finished every last word), Rin Chupeco has written a book that should appeal to almost every reader.
Sometimes prose, sometimes poetry, The Girl From The Well is not a typical ghost story. Interwoven themes of love, hate, family, murder, revenge, redemption (deep breath) and even Japanese history (which I haven’t fact checked yet as I finished the book, checked out http://www.rinchupeco.com, then began free writing this review), come together seamlessly in this novel. The imagery Ms. Chupeco paints is vivid throughout whether describing sounds or visuals. This is the first book in a long time which I read straight through, as opposed to my usual: chapter 1; last ten or so pages; chapters 2 thru the end.
There is a bit of a Stephen King influence (sorry, I only like Firestarter and The Shining), in that we learn about the background of a character then never see her again, while some characters who get a whole chapter are only described in one or two sentences. Overall the Editor in my head was (mostly) content to stay quiet.

If you still aren’t convinced, then consider this: on Rin’s site she claims she has hugged Neil “God” Gaiman THREE times.
Wolverine’s super healing ability would be her super power of choice.
She lists her husband under “pets”.
Oh, and she’s a bit OCD (no nines!).
How can you not want to read her writing?